Sunday, June 3, 2018

The opposition for big dams like Kala Bagh Dam (KBD) originates in smaller provinces from the same concerns and mistrust that we have for India building big dams up stream on Indus because it hurts Pakistan's lower riparian rights when the water is diverted away from us without our consent and approval. It is primarily a trust-deficit problem and is not technical or financial feasibility problem that many people typically think.

Opposition to KBD originates from the mistrust that arose in smaller provinces from not abiding by the promises made when Mangla Dam was being built. For example, the promise of not using a major link canal except during floods. It was feared that the link canal will divert water away from Sindh which actually happened as the land around the link canal got allotted to most powerful land mafia that forced the canal to remain open through out the year creating massive mistrust in Sindh n Balochistan. You need to read history why there is extreme mistrust in Sindh and other provinces for the lower riparian rights when water from big dams is not allowed to reach them.

Hence, campaign for big dams/KBD without obtaining consensus from smaller provinces is nothing but RAW's scheme to use politics to open a pandora box and further destabilize Pakistan by making the smaller provinces to rise in protest against the federation! Reviving KBD issue anew, now, just before 2018 elections, without trust building, appears to have been designed to infuriate smaller provinces against the bigger province, which seems to support RAW's and Indian agenda more than any pro-Pakistan agenda.

It seems that RAW has compromised the psyche of political opponents and is using their political inclinations to sway sway the narrative in a direction that advances India's agenda. Currently, PTI youths are after Punjab leader, and would like any reason to bash NS and SS. What better reason than to use the water scarcity fear and KBD issue to slam Punjab, and hence its leadership!

FB is a highly psychological n dangerous game, and I know it because I have been researching in this area. The idea is to use the prejudices, motivations and psychology of people to drive them in the direction of a carefully crafted bait. They managed Trump to win US elections with just $100k injection of funds in the FB promotions. They contrived to sway the decisions of precariously balanced voters in certain key states. Cambridge Analytica identified these precariously hanging votes of a few thousands and just before elections turned their votes in the direction of Trump through carefully crafted fury inducing news. If they could do this in USA, they can very well do it in Pakistan with a much smaller amount of $50k or even less to infuriate the smaller provinces against the big brother, and lead them to violence and disturbance.

We saw how much Dictator Gen Musharraf tried hard to sell KBD during his all encompassing rule, but he failed even though he was at the height of his power. He miserably failed to convince the smaller provinces towards the feasibility of KBD. Dictator Gen Musharraf failed because he did not "build" trust through concrete measures and decisions. What makes gullible FB warriors think that this campaign will work today just before the highly charged 2018 elections when things are being heated by RAW to meet India's nefarious designs.

This is time for thinking people to take a step back, and try to understand the design of enemies and agenda of RAW.

Please, please note that KBD is not a technical/financial feasibility issue. It is actually a TRUST deficit issue. I repeat, it is a TRUST deficit issue. No amount of exhortations to the technical and financial benefits make any sense when there is trust-deficit. Problem with KBD proponents is that they think it is not materializing because people do not understand its technical and financial feasibility. I call such people "dam-fools" who fail to appreciate the importance of removing the TRUST-deficit in order to resolve the stalemate!

Case Against Kalabagh Dam

As one case see from these references that the case against Kalabagh Dam from the point of view of smaller provinces is too complex. It is complex because the major issue is that of trust-deficit. The issues are quite similar to those faced by big dams all over the world as seen in the next section.

Problems with Big Dams

Before jumping into for and against positions on KBD, I implore all to research big dams issue and lower riparian rights issue. Big dams and canals are controversial all over the world. Why?

"By 2015, the dam industry had choked more than half of the Earth's major rivers with some 57,000 large dams. The consequences of this massive engineering program have been devastating. The world's large dams have wiped out species; flooded huge areas of wetlands, forests and farmlands; and displaced tens of millions of people.
The "one-size-fits-all" approach to meeting the world's water and energy needs is also outdated: better solutions exist. While not every dam causes huge problems, cumulatively the world's large dams have replumbed rivers in a massive experiment that has left the planet's freshwaters in far worse shape than any other major ecosystem type, including tropical rainforests. In response, dam-affected communities in many parts of the world are working to resolve the legacies of poorly planned dams. Elsewhere (and especially in North America), communities are starting to take down dams that have outlived their usefulness, as part of a broader river restoration movement." [Problems with Big Dams